Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-12-10
CLEVELAND'S FREE TRADE CHAL-
LENGE.

Cleveland for the bold, manly and
nnequivocal avowal of his extreme
Free trade purposes And a thous-
and Tebukes and defeats for the
false, dangerous and destructive pol
icy which he thus frankly and unre-
servedly proclaims ! The Message
deserves all the glory of courage, all
the praise of high public issue, all
the condemnation of utter, ruinous
heresy. 1t is surprise in It's method
and a still greater surprise in its
matter. II comes like the sudden,
echoing boom of great gun signal
ling a crucial fight on unexpected
ground. In its immediate flash of
light and in its broad bearings it
looms up as one of the most momen-
tous political events since the war.
1t plants the Pre- sident and his party
squarely on Free Trade; it clarifies
the next Presidential battle as by a
lightning stroke; it makes Free
Trade VS.. Protection the over
shadowing issue; it dwarfs and dis
misses all other questions /; it clears
away all cowardly evasions and jug
Cling subtertuges it ends all pitiful
personal bespattering; and it sum-
mons the American people to decide
the supreme question whether the
grand Protective system which has
built up our splendid industries shall
be overthrown or not
We need not stop now to deal in
detail with the Presidents argu-
ments. There will be plenty of time
for such cunning. Henceforth until
this issue shall be decisively settled
it will become the one greet theme
of discussion in the political arena.
1t will ring on every stump and echo
in every workshop. The President
simply repeats the well,worn sophis.
tries of the Free Traders. They
have been repeatedly answered by
the logic of reason and still more
effectively answered by the logic OF
facts. He says that Protection in.
creases the cost of manufactured ar
ticles while history shows that in
the long run the contrary is true.
He says that only d limited proper
ton of workers are benefited, while
experience proves that the interests
OF all are bound up together. The
surprising thing is that while the
President insists on such swee ping
reduction he does not indicate in de-
tail how it shonld be made. If he
is not to touch internal taxation,
and if he is not to touch the duty on
sugar on the ground that it is revenue
duty, how is he to wipe out the sur
plus without wiplng out all the du-
ties on manufactured articles ? And
how could this destructive policy be
adopted without carrying general
rum in its train?
This extraordinary message-ex.
traordinary in every sense-has put
a new face upon the business and
the political situation. 1t marks a
new departure in the method of Elk.
ecutIve manitestoes, and stupen.
dous and fatal blunder in personal
leadership and party pathway. Mr..
Cleveland has fixed the position of
his party, and there is no escape
from it. Few even of those who
fully agree with him would have
ventured as far as he has gone, but
now that he has plunged into the
abyss they must follow him. The
small band of Democratic Protec-
tionists are left stranded and home
less, but the Democratic party must
go with the President. AS the can.
didate he has made his own plat.
form, and it will be the overriding
Issue, no matter what jugglery may
be attempted by the Convention.
The Republican party will welcome
and accept the Presidents challenge.
because it strips away all extraneous
questions and all ambiguous utter
ances and makes the Presidential
struggle great battle for American
labor and American industry. In
that sign we conquer.-Phila. Press.